Text PreviewThe very essence of childhood is never forgotten. A memory, a scent, a certain feeling will never be lost in time, as the child transforms from the younger years of bliss to an older life of enduring hardships and burdens. Yet with his aging, memories are still alive in everyone. Many of the memories etched in the brain forever are caused by a parent or parents in the way they choose to raise their young sometimes creating a negative memory and also creating very positive, pleasant memories. Torn between the beliefs of two parents, Zora Neale Hurston is able to show both sides of childhood memories in her autobiography. Through diction and manipulation of point of view, Zora Neale Hurston conveys not only a plentiful and satisfying childhood within the bounds of her own childhood but also a sense of a childhood restricted by fears of the outside worlds and the fears that was apart of it. With a mother so strong and supporting, Hurston is able to use diction and point of view to entice readers with a sense of abundance and satisfaction within the walls of her own home. Throughout the entire passage, Hurston uses such words that constantly imply a life of ease and words that accentuate the mother's strong selfless spirit which in turn create the personality found in Zora. Starting off her autobiography she uses phrases such as, "we were never hungry" to enrich the sense of fulfillment. She had al she needed right in the comfort of her own home. All the food she ever needed was provided for her., the family even had more than they needed as shown through the quote, "any left-over eggs could always be used for missiles. Through the mother's point of view and reassuring words Zora is able to mature as a strong, proud girl. Zora's mother always believed in her, doubt was never apparent. Zora was praised by her mother at every chance she got. "Mama exhorted her children and every opportunity to jump at de sun'". With praise from a mother, Zora always felt capable and...
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...Southern Idiom of ZoraNealeHurstonZoraNealeHurston, scholar, novelists, folklorist, and anthropologist, was a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Her writing career elaborated the rich black vernacular from her southern upbringing and also of her anthropology training from the prestigious Barnard College (Slawson 209). Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida. It was one of the first all-black towns to be formed after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and is thought to heavily influence and inspire Hurston’s writings (Wall 380).
The death of her mother when she was only nine marked a turning point that redirected her life (“Hurston, ZoraNeale” 527). She ended up landing a job working as a wardrobe girl with a Gilbert and Sullivan repertory theater company (Wall 382). After separating from the touring group Hurston began working her way through school by pure determination. She attended high school at night in Baltimore, focusing on English and then she eventually was accepted and started attending Howard College. It was there that she began to realize the literary potential to develop the cultural surrounding and the artistry of the folktales that would launch a remarkable career as a creative writer (“Hurston, ZoraNeale” 527).
Hurston arrived...

...ZoraNealeHurstonZoraNealeHurston was a phenomenal woman. At the height of her success she was known as the "Queen of the Harlem Renaissance." She came to overcome obstacles that were placed in front of her. Hurston rose from poverty to fame and lost it all at the time of her death. Zora had an unusual life; she was a child that was forced to grow up to fast. But despite ZoraNeale Hurston's unsettled life, she managed to surmount every obstacle to become one of the most profound authors of the century.
ZoraNealeHurston was born January 7, 1891 in Eatonville, Florida, the fifth of eight children to Reverend John Hurston and Lucy Potts Hurston. Zora was extraordinary person. When her mother died she was able to stay strong. Her father, didn't have enough love in his heart to hold on to his daughter, she was casted out of the house by her estranged father; in addition, to being neglected Hurston, dealt with the periodic moving, against society expectations Hurston survived her harsh childhood.
At the age of thirteen, Zora Neal Hurston's life came to a halt. The woman who she would look to for understanding, support, protection and encouragement, her mother, died. From that point she had no...

...&#9;ZoraNealeHurston was an astounding Afro-American author who was recognized not for being the first Afro-American writer, but rather for her ability to bring forth her cultural language and imagery. If not for Zora's pioneering effort as a female black writer, the world of modern literature would have never seen the cultural insights of the African American culture in such a candid way.
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...Literature 211H
1 May 2012
ZoraNealeHurston and the Harlem Renaissance
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...“Drenched in Light”
In the short story “Drenched in Light” by ZoraNealeHurston, the author appeals to a broad audience by disguising ethnology and an underlying theme of gender, race, and oppression with an ambiguous tale of a young black girl and the appreciation she receives from white people. Often writing to a double audience, Hurston had a keen ability to appeal to white and black readers in a clever way. “[Hurston] knew her white folks well and performed her minstrel shows tongue in cheek” (Meisenhelder 2). Originally published in The Opportunity in 1924, “Drenched in Light” was Hurston’s first story to a national audience.
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...LITERARY ANALYSIS
OF
ZORANEALEHURSTONS
“HOW IT FEELS TO BE COLORED ME”
By Kenneth Leslie
ZoraNeale Hurston's adventurous story "How it Feels to Be Colored Me" explores the writer's pride in her individuality through precise dictation, careful details, and colorful words. Rather than writing an essay about racial inequality, Hurston develops a touching story that celebrates her being unique.ZoraNealeHurston describes how she’s an individual through the sentence "I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating circumstances except the fact that I am the only negro in the United States whose grandfather on the mother's side was not an Indian chief" (paragraph one). By using the word "only," ZoraNealeHurston divides herself from all the other blacks in America, implying that she’s a different person because of Indian blood not running through her veins. The fact that this is also the opening sentence of her entire story suggests that ZoraNealeHurston considers this to be important information for the people reading her story almost as if she is boasting. ZoraNealeHurston embraces herself by being an individual and is eager to show herself as being unique.
Because of this stories first sentence,...

...How It Feels to Be Colored Me
by ZoraNealeHurston (1891 - 1960)
1
I am colored but I offer nothing in the way of extenuating
circumstances except the fact that I am the only Negro in the
United States whose grandfather on the mother's side
was not an Indian chief.
2
I remember the very day that I became colored. Up to my
thirteenth year I lived in the little Negro town of Eatonville,
Florida. It is exclusively a colored town. The only white people I
knew passed through the town going to or coming from
Orlando. The native whites rode dusty horses, the Northern
tourists chugged down the sandy village road in automobiles.
The town knew the Southerners and never stopped cane
chewing when they passed. But the Northerners were
something else again. They were peered at cautiously from
behind curtains by the timid. The more venturesome would
come out on the porch to watch them go past and got just as
much pleasure out of the tourists as the tourists got out of the
village.
3
The front porch might seem a daring place for the rest of the
town, but it was a gallery seat for me. My favorite place was
atop the gatepost. Proscenium box for a born first-nighter. Not
only did I enjoy the show, but I didn't mind the actors knowing
that I liked it. I usually spoke to them in passing. I'd wave at
them and when they returned my salute, I would say
something like this: "Howdy-do-well-I-thank-you-where-yougoin'?"...

...In 1973, Alice Walker, the author and poet, made a sentimental visit to the African American city
of Eatonville, Florida. Her goal was to find the grave of a writer she greatly admired, ZoraNealeHurston. Hurston, a major figure of the Harlem Renaissance, died in poverty in 1960 (“Hurston, ZoraNeale”). Walker found no grave or marker in Eatonville, Hurston’s hometown. Instead, she learned that
her literary idol had been buried in an unmarked grave in a segregated cemetery in Fort Pierce, Florida.
She commissioned a headstone for the site that hailed Hurston as a genius of the South, a novelist, a
folklorist, and, finally, an anthropologist.
It is significant that Alice Walker—poet, novelist, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction—
would add “folklorist” and “anthropologist” to her description of the neglected author, for ZoraNealeHurston was more than a gifted novelist. She was also a perceptive student of African American culture,
an author of two notable books of folklore, a member of the American Folklore Society and the
American Ethnological Society (Hurston, Dust Tracks 171). Hurston’s work as an anthropologist is, in
fact, directly related to her creative writing. The connection is clear in many elements of her fiction.
Hurston’s life story begins in Eatonville, Florida, near...